


balance me out

by perfect_little_fool



Series: for the last time I am sure [2]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Brief Touch, Canon Compliant, F/M, If You Squint - Freeform, Jealous Jughead, Minuscule Angst, More like Lovesick Jughead, Unspoken Business
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-30 14:51:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11465877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfect_little_fool/pseuds/perfect_little_fool
Summary: “So now I’m being defined by my feelings for Archie?” Betty shoots back, her head cocked to the side as she stares up at him.He winces. “I didn’t mean it that way.”(or the slight jealousy we were missing from Jughead in 1x05)





	balance me out

**Author's Note:**

> Just another fic to fill in the gaps of my beautiful Bughead relationship. This one is the scene missing that I felt could have been added of Jughead reacting to Betty going out on a date with Trev because his face told me MILLIONS OF THINGS. Anyway
> 
> title comes from Paris by Fickle Friends

“This is how my dad had his Jason Blossom murder board before it was trashed,” Kevin claims as he tacks something else to the newest replica of the full crime story. He steps back to run his gaze over it with the other two behind him. 

The new bulletin board is littered with everything and anything they found that contributed to the case. It’s nothing close to what Sheriff Keller had prior to the break-in at his home, but it’s something. The notecards of names and endless questions marks are less than comforting. If only it could be more. 

“Any leads on who did that?” Jughead jumps in, brows lowered with his own eyes trained on the plethora of articles and pictures. “Or what they were looking for?”

Kevin shakes his head. “Nope. No fingerprints. But they stole a bunch of files, background checks, and all the video and audiotapes of police interviews.” At this point he’s turned toward the beanie-headed boy and Betty, both of them looking at him with similar expressions on their faces. Ones that asked—who would do something like this?

Before the trio can say anything more, the door to the Blue and Gold classroom pushes open. All glance over as Trev Brown, the last person either of the boys expected to see, smiles wide upon entering. 

“Hey, Betty,” he exhales, that smile not slipping. 

“Trev, hi,” she responds back, her own smile wide and white on her face. She pushes off of her leaning stance on the desk, her white sneakered feet crossing at the ankle as she laces her fingers together behind her back. Jughead’s brows lower further. He stares at the back of her head, wishing he could get inside of it. 

“Sorry to interrupt—“

“Oh, no, it’s okay! We’re just, uh, working on—“ she stops, finding she doesn’t know how to explain what’s in front of them. 

Jughead is more than happy to help. “Our murder board.” 

There’s a pregnant pause as Jughead smirks underneath his pursed lips and Trev takes a good look between all three of them. Betty just closes her mouth and nods, that blonde ponytail waving tauntingly at the boy still leaning behind her. 

“Well,” Trev starts up again, smoothly transitioning away from talk of Jason Blossom’s death, “I just wanted to make sure we’re still on for tomorrow?”

At this, the back of Jughead’s neck prickles. His hand that’s propped in front of him curls tighter. 

“Absolutely,” Betty continues to grin, “It’s a date.”

His face goes white.

Betty finishes, “I mean, I’ll—I’ll see you there.” And as an awkward tag, “Bye.”

Trev just chuckles and keeps up his own shit-eating smile, backing out toward the open classroom door. “Peace out.”

Betty returns the same sentiment before spinning around toward the other boys. Before she can bring them back to the board, Kevin is right in front of her face. “Going on a date with Trev?” he questions immediately, keeping a neutral, somewhat sardonic face. “Does Mama Cooper know about that?”

Jughead doesn’t know what to do with his hands anymore, not sure whether to keep one crossed or whether to place them at his sides. His beanie feels small on his head. Is it hot in here?

Betty rolls her eyes. “Kev, I’m not on house arrest.” Kevin’s face doesn’t change as he waits for her to elaborate. “Okay, she’s out of town at a Women in Journalism spa retreat. And anyway it’s not a ‘date’ date.” She says this with finality in her tone, clearly trying to deflect the conversation from continuing. 

Jughead knows he’s being too quiet so he finally dives headfirst back into the reality that Betty was going out with someone and returns with, “You just called it a date.” He follows her with his eyes as she rounds to the opposite side of the desk. “You literally said ‘it’s a date’.”

“That’s just my cover,” Betty retaliates. “Really, it’s an intelligence gathering mission.”

Jughead has to look away. 

“We should focus on the one thing we have access to that your dad doesn’t. The kids at Riverdale High. You know, maybe Trev knows something about Jason he didn’t think was important.”

Kevin just stares at his best friend for a moment longer before nodding. “I guess. You’re probably right. Just, next time, lead with that instead of making me think you were finally getting out there and away from a certain redhead.”

Betty reaches over and grabs her bag from a nearby chair, not hesitating to let it hit Kev in the shoulder as she swings it over her own. “Don’t you have study hall to get to?”

They both laugh as he collects his own things. Jughead does the same and rushes to keep up with them heading out into the hall, keeping a few steps behind until they break apart to go opposite directions. Then he catches Betty and falls to her right side. 

“So...Trev Brown?” he starts, unable to make eye contact with her just yet. “He never seemed like your type.”

Betty scrunches her forehead a bit. “I have a type?”

Jughead off-handedly shrugs. “I mean, Trev and Archie aren’t exactly the most similar.”

“So now I’m being defined by my feelings for Archie?” Betty shoots back, her head cocked to the side as she stares up at him. 

He winces. “I didn’t mean it that way.”

She stops off to the side of the hall, turning to meet his face. “You meant it some way.”

“I just—“ Jughead falters here, uncertain as to where he’s going with this. All he knows is he doesn’t like that Betty is going on a date with Trev Brown. Or going on a date. At all. “I just didn’t know you were looking to date someone.”

“Juggy, I just told you and Kevin how this is an intel date. Nothing more.” Her eyes are searching his as he hoods them, wishing his beanie was a hat so he could hide from her better. Her lips purse. She averts her own glare in retaliation. “And anyway, it’s not like anyone else is stepping up to the plate. At least Trev Brown was willing.”

His mouth opens and closes. No response to this formulates in his brain other than things he knows he can’t say. At least…not now, not yet. 

“So you’re just gonna go out with the first person who asks?”

She sputters at this. “He didn’t ask me, I asked him.”

He feels a tightness in his stomach he’s never felt before. He glances at her shoulder, at the space where his hand had fit so perfectly just a little over a week ago as he’d walked her home. He wishes a print had been left there, a physical piece of evidence to show the rest of Riverdale how he, Jughead Jones, had been there for Elizabeth Cooper.

“Are we done here, Jug?” Betty is murmuring now, staring up at him with those big green eyes and soft mouth. “I have Euro History to get to.”

He felt his head nod but didn’t mean it. He wishes to say so much more.

She keeps a steady look upon him before turning to go. At last thought his hand shoots out to grab her upper arm, not unkindly, but to ask her to stay for one more moment. “What if he’s not the only one that’s willing?” Jughead steels himself enough to ask, keeping his eyes low to the ground so he doesn’t have to subject himself to her reaction. A swallow lodges in his throat mid-way.

Betty’s ponytail swings. “He’s not?” she asks quietly.

He can’t say more, can’t find the right words, just meets her eyes silently as he clenches his jaw. Her blink is slow. She retracts her arm gently, his palm smoothing all the way down her pink sweater and ending with a stroke over her palm before she places it back at her own side. He blinks slow back. 

“I’ll see you tonight at the diner, Juggy?” she questions then, cheeks flushed with color. His heart pounds a million miles a minute behind his ribcage. 

“Of course, Betty.”

She turns to go one final time and he lets her. His unspoken words float in a circle around his head like birds in a cartoon.

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what you think kids! xoxo


End file.
